First Genuinely Nice Day Of The Year

The day after #109 was (as the title of this would suggest) the first day of the year that the UK weather wasn’t taking the piss. Given that it was on a Saturday too, I was looking forward to getting some pints down in the sunshine. Esther had work in the morning so I went by the bakery to pick her up and we wandered down to the pub. We first went to The Half Moon in Putney and were lucky to get a seat outdoors. The combination of a sunny Saturday and Fulham playing at home meant that the pubs down in the lower half of SW15 were busier than usual. I went inside and picked up the first round.

Pint No. 110

What? – Fourpure, #55Live

Where? – The Half Moon, Putney

When? – Saturday 14th April 2018

In general, the Half Moon has exactly the same beers on tap as every other Youngs pub in Putney. There are 6 so they’ve got a bit of a monopoly on the area which isn’t brilliant when you’re trying to knock off a load of unique beers. Anyway, I spotted something a bit different when I was at the bar. The Half Moon is celebrating 55 years as a live music venue this year and to commemorate this, Fourpure have brewed a special lager, #55Live. At 4.4% it’s not the strongest bev going, but it packed a bit more flavour than I expected. It poured a bright but cloudy yellow with a fair amount of carbonation and a thin but creamy head. I was pretty happy with my choice and pleased with myself for finding a rare brew.

Overall Score: 3/5.

After that pint we continued our walk over to The Rocket, a Weatherspoons on the Thames. I’m not normally a frequenter of ‘Spoons, however this particular branch has an outdoors right on the river so you’ve not actually got to sit inside. It was absolutely heaving so I picked the first thing I could see, a Thatcher’s Gold, rather than having a look for something new. We grabbed our drinks and battled through the crowds to get outside. Fulham’s home game was a local derby against Brentford which meant there was a huge police presence and there were shed loads of football fans chanting and drinking. It was good and made for a buzzing atmosphere however kick off was looming so the fans were dispersing. We decided to make a move too but head over to Revolution at the top of the High Street to see what their roof terrace was like.

Pint No. 111

What? – Mahou

Where? – Revolution, Putney

When? – Saturday 14th April 2018

It’s up about 11 flights of stairs and it was only once we’d made it to the top that we noticed that there weren’t any bars open up there so one of us would have to make the journey again. Unsurprisingly, I found myself descending the stairs in search of an open bar. Back on the ground floor, I had a couple of options to choose from but decided to go with a pint of Mahou. It’s not a bev I see too frequently around which took to be a good thing. Lagers like this lean toward hyperbole when describing themselves (e.g. Carlsberg being “probably the best lager in the world” when in reality it’s like drinking piss flavoured Robinson’s squash diluted with carbonated water) and it turns out that this is also the case for Mahou. ‘5 Star Taste’ could only be considered accurate in the event that the star rating scale ranged from 1-100, or if you’d never learned the definition of the word taste and assumed it meant something different. In fact, I found that there was little to no taste or smell. It’s a non-descript brown drink. Like Dr. Pepper, but without the post-graduate degree. One positive for Mahou, is that it was a warm, stuffy day and a glass of cold, tasteless lager actually suited it well.